A group of record labels and music publishers, including UMG Recordings and Universal Music, has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the company behind the poker website PokerNews. The music companies note that several podcasts published through PokerNews use unlicensed recordings. They request damages that could add up to several million dollars.

With hundreds of thousands of visitors, predominantly in French-speaking countries, streaming site HDS.to has been a force to be reckoned with. A few days ago, however, the site suddenly went offline. According to a message that was briefly posted on the site, it has shut down permanently. Why the operators took this drastic decision remains unknown.

1337x.to, one of the world's most popular torrent sites, is being blocked by anti-malware company MalwareBytes. The tool claims that 1337x is engaged in "fraud" and is a "scam to try to steal your information or credit card details" yet Google gives the torrent site a clean bill of health. MalwareBytes is also claiming the same against PCgames-download.com, without supporting evidence.

Several major Hollywood studios have obtained a blocking order against one of South America's most popular pirate sites. Various iterations of Cuevana have been a thorn in the side of Disney, Fox, Paramount, Columbia, and others for almost a decade but following legal action in Argentina, the site will now be blocked by the country's Internet service providers.

WatchAsap, a paid streaming site that was promoted by the defunct 123movies, now displays a familiar seizure banner. The banner mentions that the domain name was seized by the feds as part of an ongoing criminal case. Whether that's true or not remains a mystery for now.

Anti-piracy groups witnessed their work becoming more complicated this year after the EU's new privacy regulations limited access to domain name WHOIS data. This measure is supposed to increase privacy for registrants but in a submission to the US Government, Hollywood's MPAA stresses that restoring full access increases the privacy of the public at large.

Officers from Ukraine's cyberpolice unit have raided the home of the alleged operator of a pirate streaming portal suspected of infringing the rights of Universal City Studios and many other entertainment companies. A 24-year-old man, who is also believed to be behind another 10 pirate sites, now faces up to six years in prison.

Nearly 14% of all internet traffic worldwide is generated by Netflix, new data from Sandvine shows. This makes the streaming giant the dominant traffic source. BitTorrent is listed in fifth place, which is driven in large part by traffic from the Asia-Pacific region, where the file-sharing protocol even beats Netflix.